A known starting apparatus for an internal combustion engine uses a starter motor, which is always linked to a crankshaft of the engine via a jaw gear, to crank the engine (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2000-120514). One proposed starting apparatus prohibits the starter motor from cranking the engine until a condition of zero revolution speed, which is triggered by an engine stop, is kept for a predetermined time period in response to a driver's OFF operation of a start switch for starting the engine (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2002-61554). This prior art starting apparatus prohibits the starter motor from cranking the engine in response to the driver's ON operation of the start switch while the engine does not completely stop the engine. This prohibits cranking the engine in the state of reverse rotation of the engine, where a piston does not complete a compression cycle immediately before a stop of the engine and is pressed back by the compressed air, thus desirably preventing an excess load from being applied to the starter motor.